Press Room

FOSTER FARMS LAUNCHES NEW FOSTER IMPOSTER ADVERTISEMENTS TO INFORM AND ENTERTAIN IN 2008 Favored brand icons highlight Foster Farms' fresh, never frozen, all-natural chicken

2/12/2008
LIVINGSTON, Calif. - Foster Farms to West Coast consumers: don’t be fooled by the Foster Imposters! The mischievous feathered duo is at it again in 2008, and this time the birds are relentless in their efforts to dupe West Coast consumers. Beginning today, the antics of the Foster Imposters take center stage in three new entertaining television advertisements: “Opposite Day,” “Fortune Teller” and “100%.”

Airing throughout California, Oregon and Washington, the new advertisements feature the Imposters encouraging passersby to embrace Opposite Day, questioning the future with the help of a fortune teller and a misplaced chocolate malt ball, and campaigning door-to-door with some misleading arithmetic, all in an endless quest to qualify as 100 percent fresh and natural. In all three commercials, Foster Farms challenges the Imposters’ misleading claims with the new slogan, “At Foster Farms, Fresh and Natural Means Fresh and Natural.”

“We know that consumers care about what’s in their food,” says Greta Janz, vice president of marketing. “We are proud to offer West Coast families fresh, 100 percent natural, Foster Farms chicken and turkey products that never contain added sodium, steroids or hormones. These commercials reflect that pride.”

The new advertising campaign is supported by recent consumer research, including findings that:
• 82 percent of consumers value freshness above all else; and
• Nine out of 10 consumers believe that natural chicken should not contain any added ingredients.

“In ‘Opposite Day,’ the Imposters actually get it right for the first time ever – they truly are the very opposite of Foster Farms fresh chickens,” adds Janz. “While the Imposters travel thousands of miles on a junk food diet, 100 percent natural Foster Farms fresh chickens are locally-grown, corn-fed and never injected with salt water.”

The new Foster Imposter commercials were created in partnership with award-winning, San Francisco-based advertising firm Goodby, Silverstein & Partners (GSP). The new campaign reunites creative talent from the original 1993 Foster Imposter team, including direction by Tom Routson, voice talent by Bob Kerstetter, and creative supervision by Rich Silverstein working with writer, Tyler McKellar. Routson and Kerstetter were the original creative team for the 1993 campaign, with current GSP co-chairman Rich Silverstein as the creative director.

“Since their creative inception in 1993, the overly-ambitious Foster Imposters have won the hearts of viewers throughout the West Coast,” adds Silverstein. “Thanks to the campaign’s consistency in creative and messaging, and the longevity of our client-agency relationship with Foster Farms, each set of Foster Imposter advertisements achieve high awareness while entertaining and informing today’s consumer.”

For nearly 15 years, the Foster Imposters have appeared in more than 25 commercials and have continued to gain popularity among all age groups, with a growing fan base that is tens of thousands strong. This year’s new Foster Imposter commercials, including three new Spanish-language advertisements developed by award-winning firm Grupo Gallegos and launching February 18, will be viewable on the Imposter gaming Web site www.TheFosterImposters.com. Additional Foster Imposter information and memorabilia are available at www.fosterfarmsandnewmansown.net.

About Foster Farms
Founded by Max and Verda in 1939, Foster Farms remains family owned and operated to this day. The company has stayed committed to providing the highest quality fresh, locally grown chicken to consumers in the West. Foster Farms specializes in producing high quality fresh chicken products that are all natural with no preservatives or sodium-based additives, in addition to a full line of other delicious poultry products. The company produces and delivers premium quality poultry products to retailers, warehouse clubs and foodservice customers throughout the West. The Foster Farms Web site at www.fosterfarmsandnewmansown.net offers thousands of delicious recipes for all seasons, categorized by preparation time, ingredients, nutrition attributes, and more.

About Goodby, Silverstein & Partners
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners is a full-service advertising agency, founded in 1983, with the simple aim of producing the world's best advertising (as recognized by its industry peers in terms of the distinctiveness of its work and by its effectiveness in the marketplace). Located in San Francisco, GS&P handles over a billion dollars in billings for clients including Hewlett-Packard, Comcast, Sprint, Hyundai, Frito-Lay, and the California Fluid Milk Processors Advisory Board ("got milk?"). [The firm has] won every major advertising award, most of them many times over. GS&P has won fifteen Gold Effie™ awards from the American Marketing Association. [GS&P] has had more finalists in the Kelly Awards for magazine advertising than any agency in the country. [The agency] has won Emmys, the Grand Prix at Cannes, and numerous Agency of the Year awards from AdWeek, Advertising Age, Creativity Magazine, the Clios, Graphis, One Club, M&Ms, and Campaign magazine.


– 30 –